Finished: Antigone (Sophocles). It's been a long time since I've read one of the ancient classics, and my mind just found the language so refreshing. It takes a little bit to adjust to, but then it's just like I was born reading that amazing, flowing, metaphorical, confusing, but beautiful language. :-) I put a couple of snippets of the writing below. The story is pretty simple. Creon is the ruler of the city of Thebes after defeating Oedipus in battle. One of Oedipus' sons, Eteocles, battled on the side of Creon, and one, Polynices, battled on the side of Oedipus. They face each other on the battle field and kill each other at the same time. Creon decrees that Eteocles shall be buried with honors and treated as a hero, but that Polynices shall receive no burial whatsoever. He will be left where he is for the dogs and carrion to tear at his body. In fact, if anyone even openly mourns for him, they will be breaking the law. Antigone is the devastated sister of Eteocles and Polynices and daughter of the deceased Oedipus. She defies Creon's new law and covers Polynices' body with dirt and performs a burial rite over him. Her argument is: how do you defy the gods who require this ceremony upon the death of a mortal? does a law created by a mortal usurp the law of the gods? Antigone is caught and brought to Creon where she shows no remorse for her actions. Even though she is betrothed to his own son, Haemon, Creon refuses to relent on his stance and sentences Antigone to death by being locked in a cavernous tomb until she dies. Haemon appeals to his father, but the words fall on deaf ears. He tells his son that he cannot back down before the people, and he cannot let a woman rule his actions. Haemon leaves his father with his own thoughts. Soon, an old seer comes to visit Creon and tells him that imminent disaster will be a result of his decision, not to mention that the people he's now ruling will turn on him. Creon decides to follow the seer's advice and goes to give the body of Polynices a proper burial. While there, he hears a scream coming from Antigone's vault. He realizes it is the scream of his own son! Creon runs to the vault, but it's too late...there he finds Antigone's body hanging after she committed suicide in her despair, and Haemon dead beside her, having run himself through with his own weapon. Beside himself with grief, Creon makes his way back to his home only to find that his beloved wife, Eurydice, has also just committed suicide, having heard of her only surviving son's death. As he is throughout the story, Creon is then chatted at by the Chorus. Here is what they have to say at the very end of the story:

LEADER OF CHORUS. Wise conduct hath command of happiness Before all else, and piety to Heaven Must be preserved. High boastings of the proud Bring sorrow to the height to punish pride:-- A lesson men shall learn when they are old.

And here's another passage I really liked. It's when Antigone is justifying to Creon why she needed to defy him and bury her brother no matter the consequences:

I heard it not from Heaven, nor came it forth From Justice, where she reigns with Gods below. They too have published to mankind a law. Nor thought I thy commandment of such might That one who is mortal thus could overbear The infallible, unwritten laws of Heaven. Not now or yesterday they have their being, But everlastingly, and none can tell The hour that saw their birth. I would not, I, For any terror of a man's resolve, Incur the God-inflicted penalty Of doing them wrong. That death would come, I knew Without thine edict;--if before the time, I count it gain. Who does not gain by death, That lives, as I do, amid boundless woe? Slight is the sorrow of such doom to me. But had I suffered my own mother's child, Fallen in blood, to be without a grave, That were indeed a sorrow. This is none. And if thou deem'st me foolish for my deed, I am foolish in the judgement of a fool.

A sad, sad story, but one told oh so very well!